A Minnesota woman has been charged in Angola on suspicion of murdering her husband, a missionary serving in the African nation, according to their church.
Jackie Shroyer, the wife of 44-year-old missionary and former pastor Beau Shroyer, has now been charged as a “co-author” in her husband’s death, the family’s church confirmed to NBC News.
“It saddens me immensely to have to share with you that we were notified that Jackie has been formally charged as a co-author in the murder of her husband,” lead pastor Troy M. Easton said in a statement on the Lakes Area Vineyard Church website.
Jackie was first arrested in connection with the death in November and is accused of forming a murder-for-hire plot.
The church, located in Minnesota, called the missionary’s Oct. 25 death a “violent, criminal attack.”
His body was found in Thienjo among his belongings, with his “distraught” wife also at the scene, police said, per NBC.
A man who worked as a security guard for the couple, 24-year-old Bernadino Isaac Elisa, was also named as a suspect and arrested in November, along with Isalino Musselenga Kayoo, 23, also known as “Vin Diesel,” whom police said was the “mastermind” behind the killing.
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A fourth suspect, Gelson Guerreiro Ramos, 22, is on the run.
In November, the Angolan Press Agency, citing the Angolan Criminal Investigation Service, reported that Jackie Shroyer was suspected to be behind the crime and that a payment of US$50,000 was promised to the accomplices for carrying out the murder.
A spokesperson told the agency that there were “strong suspicions of a romantic relationship between the person who ordered the crime and her accomplice, the guard at the couple’s residence.”
“I’m so sorry and simply do not have words to express my disbelief and sorrow about this news,” Easton said in a previous statement, written to his congregation in November, when Jackie was first arrested.
He wrote Monday that a court date has not yet been set but is expected to take place within the next six months.
According to previous reporting, the Shroyer family moved to Angola in 2021 after becoming missionaries with the North Carolina-based evangelist organization, SIM USA.
The church’s previous statements said the Shroyers aimed to teach Angolans about Christianity in a “remote bush village.”
The couple’s five children, who range in age from 9 to 17, are being “well cared for” and are back on U.S. soil, according to Easton’s statement.
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